What your guests are saying about you?

I discovered today that many of my independent restaurant friends are being talked about all over the internet. This entire social media deal is off the hook, mind boggling, confusing, and potentially the biggest pain in the butt that independent restaurants may ever face.

So many restaurants have established a presence in the social space using Twitter and Facebook and are busy trying to talk and listen to their fans, friends, followers, and everybody else in the space that has anything to say that somehow appears and or sounds to be relevant to the restaurant biz.

As they jump over the Farmville fences and dodge the Mafia bullets they can become beleagured trying to figure out what their customers are saying about them. Ocassionally, they even stop for a drink, a gift, accept friend requests, join fanpages, and read profiles. And every now and then, they stumble accross a comment about their restaurant. Alas, comments about your restaurant and they are positive, wow it’s all worth the effort, or so they think.

Did you know that there are sites on the internet like openTable, yelp, menupix, etc. where your guests are encouraged to write their own reviews? Do you know what they are saying to the world about your restaurant?

So now on top on your Twitter and Facebook you can add openTable, yelp, urbanspoon, and menupix to find out what is being said about your restaurant, right? There has to be a better way to mange this Pandoras box!

Yesterday, I discovered GuestPulse from InsideHospitality and what a discovery it was. Did you know that GuestPulse will find everything that is being said about your restaurant? GuestPulse can collect everything being said about your restaurant from virtually anywhere on the internet. They can provide a valuable resource for you to monitor what is being said about you.

I have cut and pasted the following directly from the GuestPulse site below without their permission, I hope they don’t mind. I am not compensated in any way for posting this, I am posting it because I see it as a valuable tool for my independent restaurant friends. Check out InsideHospitality, I think they really can help you manage your online reputation. They also offer 15 – 30 minute Webinars to help, I plan to get on one soon.

Why Choose GuestPulse™

to Manage Your Online Reputation?

We have ten reasons for you.

Reason #10 Our company is 100% completely Hospitality focused. This is all we do and know the industry like no other.

Reason #9 GuestPulse was conceived, designed and built from the ground up exclusively for the Hospitality industry.

Reason #8 GuestPulse scours over 50+ Million websites to find what anyone, anywhere is saying about you.

Starting at $80 GuestPulse is priced so companies of every size can immediately begin seeing results and take an active role in their Online Reputation.

Why GuestPulse Is Valuable To Your Company

As you are aware, a good or bad experience can absolutely support or hurt your business. Often times, a guest will share their experiences with friends and family. Now, with the Web growing at a rapid pace, these comments can be seen by a large number of people (including potential customers) outside of the guest’s immediate online community. The result: guest feedback becomes more impactful and influential than ever before.

Put GuestPulse™ to work for you, and gain a partner who can help you leverage the power of social media. Not only can we quickly monitor conversations and easily segment them by influence/reach and tone — positive, neutral, or negative — we can empower you and your business to embrace and excel in your market and positively affect your guest satisfaction, sales, and bottom line.